


The Final Countdown

by Agron97



Category: Produce 101 (TV), UP10TION, X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Co-workers, Friendship, M/M, Romance, Seungyul are my ults, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21849127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agron97/pseuds/Agron97
Summary: A Seungseok Soulmate AU.Cho Seungyoun had almost accepted that he was going to die alone. Until he wakes up one morning and realises that his whole life was turning upside down because in less than 24 hours, he would finally be meeting his soulmate.
Relationships: Cho Seungyeon | Seungyoun/Kim Wooseok | Wooshin, Kim Yohan/Lee Hangyul
Comments: 16
Kudos: 85





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> A Soulmate AU, where a 24-hour time mark will suddenly appear and start ticking on the inside of your wrist when you’re less than 24 hours from meeting with your soulmate. The time mark will hit zero when the two people meet.
> 
> Cho Seungyoun, a 30-year old who leads a fairly average life and has grown accustomed to the single bachelor life, had been waiting all his life to finally meet his soulmate. But the day never seemed to come, until it does, and he nearly loses his mind.

In his 30 years of living, Seungyoun did not think that _the day_ would finally show up. As he stared at his forearm and slowly squinted at his inner wrist, he shook his head in disbelief. He had just rolled out of bed late in the afternoon on one of his rare days off and dragged himself to the bathroom. He rubbed at his arm, scratched at his skin, wondered how much he drank last night and if he was drunk enough last night for someone to scribble random numbers on his arm as some kind of practical joke. But as the numbers ticked and changed, Seungyoun quickly realised that this wasn’t some sort of prank.

22:00:05

It would be 22 hours till Seungyoun would _finally_ meet his one true soulmate.

He stared at his own reflection in the mirror as a goofy smile crept onto his lips. He was ready – or at least thought he was. Everyone in his friend group, and even in his friend’s friend group, had found their soulmates. Some had met on the commute on the way to work while others accidentally bumped into each other in the most random of places. He chuckled to himself, wondering where fate would align their two beckoning souls. He hoped it would be somewhere romantic, at a park during sunset or at a little small town carnival on a ferris wheel ride. But in the end, he wouldn’t have minded. Seungyoun could meet this girl – or guy – next to a dumpster for all he cared, he was just glad he wouldn’t be alone anymore.

He’d grown so used to being alone because he has been alone for so long. Dating, or sleeping around for that matter, was considered a big taboo in society. Everyone was taught at a young age that one day they would meet their soulmates, so they were programmed to abstain against everything you would normally see in Hollywood movies. Heck, Seungyoun himself only had his first kiss at the age of 22, at an alcohol-induced college party. He only had one girlfriend in the span of his lifetime, and even that didn’t last more than 3 months when her time mark suddenly appeared. They broke it off amicably, but it still broke Seungyoun to pieces when it happened. And he never wanted to be put in that situation again, _ever_. So he waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually, Seungyoun just gave up and settled on the fact that he didn’t have a soulmate.

Seungyoun cranked up the heater to his shower. He needed a nice long _and hot_ shower, not just to rejuvenate his body after his late night antics but also to clear his mind. The last time he checked, which was when he rolled out of bed, it was 2.30 in the afternoon. He took another furtive glance at his arm, more specifically at the timer flashing 21 remaining hours in bright red. As he calculated in his mind over and over again, he eventually reached the conclusion that he would meet his _life partner_ between 12pm to 1pm the next day.

_Life Partner._

Seungyoun wanted to laugh at himself. He barely knew this person and he was already so confident he was going to spend the rest of his life with this stranger. There have never been stories of soulmates _not_ ending up together. In fact, Seungyoun has never even heard about soulmates disliking each other after they meet. And for goodness sake, taking into consideration his horrible luck in life, Seungyoun did not want to be the first case. 

That’s precisely when the anxiety started creeping in.

Seungyoun quickly pushed aside all his expectations of what his ‘perfect’ partner would be. He didn’t need for this person to have beautiful, silky brunette hair or dark, sultry brown eyes. The longer he stood in that shower, the more questions popped up. More questions meant that Seungyoun was envisioning more and more worst case scenarios. Whatever happy thoughts of wedding bells and cute, cuddly children was completely thrown out the window at that point. 

_'What if he wasn’t attractive to his soulmate at all? What if they didn’t have anything in common or held completely different life principles? Or what if his soulmate just simply didn’t like him?'_

Staying in the shower wasn’t helping at all, Seungyoun decided. He quickly climbed out of the bath and grabbed his towel. His heart was absolutely pounding against his chest as he scrambled out of the bathroom. Everything just felt small and confined. The four walls of his room seemed to be caving in as he felt panic overtake him. Did he actually think he was ready to meet his soulmate, because _fuck it_ , he isn’t.

Immediately, he reached for his phone on the bedside table and dialled the first number on speed dial.

“Seungyoun, you little dipshit, I know you’re on leave today but that doesn’t mean you can call me anytime you like,” Lee Hangyul’s voice echoed on the line, annoyance etched in his tone.

When Seungyoun didn’t instantly respond, Hangyul sounded a little bit more concerned.

“Hello? Seungyoun? Are you in some sort of trouble?”

“It’s here. It finally fucking came,” Seungyoun eventually managed to spit out. He rhythmically inhaled deep and exhaled, repeating this over and over again – trying, _and failing, mind you,_ to steady his fast-beating heart.

“What? Your long awaited One Direction merch?” Hangyul chuckled at his own joke. Or maybe Hangyul secretly wanted that signed Harry Styles poster. 

“The time mark”

There was a long pause on the line.

Hangyul had been Seungyoun’s friend since they were assigned the same room together in college up until now where they both work together in the same auditing firm. They share many things in common: a deep love for sports – football and basketball in particular, since they actively played when they were younger, similar tastes in music and TV shows, and not to forget, a fine appreciation for good tattoos. Seungyoun had always felt they had great chemistry and were often, if not always, on the same wavelength. “Seungyul”, their friends would call the pair.

All in all, Hangyul was everything Seungyoun was looking for in a partner. Not only did they connect with similar interests, they also did on an emotional level _and_ Hangyul was _physically_ all that Seungyoun could ask for. Hangyul was athletically built, had sleek, neat brunette hair, soft yet alluring brown eyes and was just about an inch shorter than Seungyoun.

But, in the end, life just doesn’t give you what you want.

Let’s just say that Seungyoun was far from jumping out of his seat when Hangyul’s time-mark appeared and Seungyoun’s didn’t.

Seungyoun could hear a loud, brisk shuffling noise in the background and maybe _, just maybe_ , he heard Hangyul scream ‘Emergency!’ to the whole office.

“I’ll be there in fifteen,”.

* * *

Lo and behold, Hangyul _didn’t_ arrive in 15 minutes.

In fact, he probably arrived an hour later than promised. As soon as Seungyoun unlocked his front door and threw it open for Hangyul to enter, Hangyul was already blabbering away about his stupid excuse and why he was late. Seungyoun could barely catch what Hangyul was saying though. All he could process was _traffic jam, no money for bus and shitty office emergency procedure_.

Hangyul finally stopped talking when he realised that his complaints fell on deaf ears. He turned to look at Seungyoun who was hunched over the kitchen counter, looking pale as a ghost. Seungyoun’s shoulders were slumped, as though he was supporting the weight and troubles of the whole damn world. He definitely didn’t look like a guy who was going to meet the love of his life in less than 24 hours. Hangyul’s eyes wandered further down his friend’s figure and finally stopped at the blinking set of numbers on Seungyoun’s wrist and he couldn’t help but smile a little.

‘ _It was happening. Late, very late. But, better than never,’_ Hangyul thought to himself with a little sigh.

“Youn, I would’ve expected you to feel at least a little bit more excited than this.” the brunette said. “I mean, you’re going to meet someone you’re going to spend the rest of your life with in -- 20 hours and 50 minutes.” Hangyul added as he approached his friend, squinting slightly as he tried to accurately read the numbers on Seungyoun’s wrist.

“That’s the damn thing,” Seungyoun sighed deeply. “What if this person didn’t want to spend their life with me?”. This question elicited a hearty laugh from his companion, annoying and worrying Seungyoun even more. For god’s sake, Seungyoun was _en route_ to having a panic attack right here, if he wasn’t having one already. “Is this funny to you, huh?” Seungyoun annoyedly questioned.

Hangyul’s laughter immediately died down, “That’s not what a soulmate is then, bro” he said as a matter-of-factly.

Seungyoun lifted his head from the counter and shot him this _look_. To the average person, it would just seem like Seungyoun was very confused. But since they have been friends for so long, Hangyul immediately understood _the look_. It was kind of a half what-the-fuck, half intrigued look. More specifically, it was the look that said ‘O Wise Hangyul, please tell me more and share with me your wisdom’. Or… at least that’s how Hangyul had always interpreted it.

“Soulmates are two people who were _meant_ for each other. Like, fate brought these two individuals together specifically, out of the 7 billion other people in the world. Soulmates aren’t just a coincidence, you know. Your soulmate, Youn, will be someone you were made for and likewise,” Hangyul elaborated fondly, his mind thinking of his own very soulmate.

As Seungyoun processed what his friend just said, he felt himself calm down slightly. Hangyul was right, even though he rarely was. He allowed his mind to wander to all the possibilities of meeting someone created _just_ for him, what that would mean in the future and how it would change so many things in his life.

To be completely frank, Seungyoun had already 79.666% accepted that he wasn’t going to find his soulmate in this life. In fact, even his parents weren’t ‘actual’ soulmates. Neither his mom or dad had their time marks appear. But that didn’t change the fact that they loved each other very much, nor did it stop them from creating a beautiful, loving family either.

By his 29th birthday, Seungyoun was done waiting and hoping.

Although he never really put himself out on the market – or even tried very hard to be exact, all he wanted at this point in his life was a stable relationship with a nice girl that also didn’t have a time mark. He was okay with not being able to find his soulmate and he was fine with marrying someone who wasn’t his supposed soulmate because _hey,_ it couldn’t be all that bad. Besides, his parents had worked out great.

Hangyul’s deep voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “So, tell me, how can your soulmate not want to spend his entire life with you if they _literally_ exist for you?” his best friend asked.

Seungyoun sighed for the 100thtime that day as he ran a hand through his hair. He finally looked up to meet Hangyul’s eyes for the first time since Hangyul barged through the front door like it was his own house. Seungyoun tried to read his friend’s facial expression, to try and see if Hangyul really meant what he was saying. He examined Hangyul’s face and tried to find some look of doubt or any sense of apprehension, but all he found was fondness and a small smile of content on Hangyul’s lips.

“I guess… for the first time ever, you’re right” Seungyoun finally spoke, a smile breaking out on his face. “Thank you, Gyul” he added as he approached his best friend, opening his arms wide. Hangyul gladly accepted the hug as he buried his face in the crook of Seungyoun’s neck, “I’m so happy for you, Youn”.

And for the first time that day, Seungyoun also felt _genuinely_ happy.


	2. Is It You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the day Seungyoun "meets" his soulmate. Also featuring, an annoying Hangyul who won't leave Seungyoun in peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you sooo much to all the kind comments and kudos you guys have been leaving. I'm so thankful to have support from all of you. It's really given me a lot of confidence to write more and update this story :) Big hugs to all of my readers, and I hope you guys like this chapter!
> 
> Also, just to help with your imaginations - In this AU, Seungyoun had jet black hair and wears glasses. Hangyul and Wooseok have brown/brunette hair.

Seungyoun was back at work the next day, continuing his _seemingly_ normal routine. He uses the term ‘seemingly normal’ very loosely because today was going to be _the_ day he met the person who would change his life forever.

The day he would finally meet his soulmate.

To be very frank, Seungyoun didn’t even see the point of him even coming in for work today. He could barely focus his eyes on the screen of his laptop, everything just looked like a never-ending sea of numbers and complicated words that his brain could not comprehend at this point in time. He impatiently tapped his foot against the floor and he could physically feel beads of sweat accumulating on his forehead.

As he began typing away on his keyboard, Seungyoun could see his hands trembling in anticipation. It took _thirty-long_ years for fate to finally bring him his life partner. He wasn’t even sure how he was supposed to properly react to this surprise. All he could do was ponder about his near future, his mind for the 100000th time today drifting to the endless string of possibilities as to where and how he would meet his soulmate.

‘ _Could it be a random client walking through the doors of the office looking for an auditor? Or a friend of his boss that came to attend a meeting? Maybe even the food delivery boy that frequently sends lunch to his colleagues.’_

He immediately cringed.

“Oh God, please not the greasy, not-so-cute food delivery boy,” he silently prayed to himself, making a list of all the good deeds he’s ever done to remind fate that he _is_ a good person and deserved a super-cute individual to live out the rest of his life with. He repeated this over and over again like a mantra, willing it to happen – until he was rudely snapped out of his prayers.

“MR. CHO!” his boss’ loud booming voice echoed throughout the department.

Seungyoun jumped a little in his seat as he frantically turned his head left and right to locate the source of said voice. He nearly fell out of his chair, letting out a little yelp when he felt a stern hand placed on his left shoulder. “Mr. Cho, I really hope you aren’t messing about at work considering that I gave you a day off yesterday,” his boss angrily shook his head, clearly clueless about Seungyoun’s soon-to-be _life-altering_ situation. “I expect these reports on my desk before you go off for lunch, do I make myself clear?”.

“Y-y-yes, Sir. You got it” Seungyoun stammered, rarely apprehended for slacking off on the job.

Fearful of getting fired from the only job that was giving him a decent income to afford to pay the bills, the black-haired boy quickly brushed aside all thoughts of meeting his soulmate and began furiously typing on the computer. He only stopped a few minutes later, when he felt something – a paper ball maybe? – being thrown at his forehead. He looked up, confused, right before he saw _another_ ball of paper heading right towards his face. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge this _vicious_ attack as the scrunch of paper hit him square on the face, knocking his glasses askew.

Seungyoun groaned and fixed his glasses in place with a sense of annoyance. He looked across his table with intent to bloody murder the person that bothered him. Seungyoun immediately rolled his eyes and sighed as he saw who the assailant was – _Lee-fucking-Hangyul_. The other boy had a huge celebratory, smug smirk plastered on his face. It didn’t take a second longer for Seungyoun to hold up his middle finger at the boy as Hangyul wiggled his eyebrows and stuck his tongue out at Seungyoun.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Naughty, naughty Youn. What if your soulmate finds out how rude you are,” he heard Hangyul snicker.

_‘Breathe in, breathe out. He’s just trying to distract you’._

With a deep inhale and exhale of breath, Seungyoun quickly got back to work. There was no way in hell he was going to let Lee Hangyul be the reason he gets fired from his job. Besides, Hangyul knew how anxious Seungyoun was about this whole soulmate predicament, why was he even poking fun at him in the first place.

“Ugh. How annoying,” Seungyoun muttered bitterly under his breath, quiet enough that the person sitting opposite his desk couldn’t hear.

But soon, Seungyoun broke out into a little smile.

 _‘Stupid Hangyul,’_ he thought as he shook his head affectionately. Though deep, deep, _deep_ down, he couldn’t imagine his life without his best friend.

* * *

When lunch time rolled around, Seungyoun _still_ hadn’t finished the final draft of the auditing report his boss requested for. That’s precisely when Hangyul gleefully bounced over to his desk, leaning on his cubical. “Yo, Hyeongjun-nie and I were planning to eat lunch at that new sushi place,” Hangyul informed.

Seungyoun looked up from his unfinished work to shoot him a questioning look.

“You mean the one two blocks away?” he asked, so very tempted to not come along just because he was _too damn lazy_ to walk two bloody blocks just for lunch, as he focussed back to his computer screen and continued typing up his report.

“Yeah! Hyeongjun got us reservations and everything! Besides, everyone keeps raving about the place,” Hangyul defended, sounding very excited. “Come on, pleaaaaase Youn, let’s go,” he begged, giving Seungyoun the best aegyo look he could muster. And considering Hangyul, that aegyo, was _pretty_ bad.

Seungyoun shot a death glare at Hangyul when he cheekily said, “Hmmmmm… you might even be lucky enough to meet your soulmate there,”. Seungyoun’s eyes drifted to his left arm, where his long, blue, work sleeves covered up his time mark. The cuff was doing a good job at hiding the flashing digits, but no matter how many layers he tried to cover it with, Seungyoun knew. It was there, and it was ticking away the seconds. If his calculations last night were right, then he would only have a handful of minutes left before he met his soulmate. But, he didn’t dare pull up his sleeve to look or even sneak a little peak.

“Fine, I’ll see you there. I have to get this done, first” Seungyoun huffed, crossing his arms in defeat.

Hangyul did a little celebratory jump and called out, “Woohoo! Let’s go Hyeongjun-nie!” as he quickly grabbed Hyeongjun by the arm, dragging the cute baby-faced boy out of the office. Seungyoun could hear Hangyul loudly listing out all the different types of sushi he planned to order as he practically _skipped_ out the office door, Hyeongjun trying hard to skip along with Hangyul. Seungyoun covered his face with his hands, rubbed at his eyes and willed himself to finish the final details of the report. His heartbeat sped faster and faster as each word he wrote brought him nearer to the completion of his task. And nearer to his soulmate.

* * *

The tall black-haired man zipped through the streets with a little spring in his step. He was shaking, he was nervous as hell. But, he was excited. And happy. His heart pumped with a mixture of emotions: joy, anticipation, anxiousness. He folded his left sleeve to see how much time he has left.

_00:03:25_

He breathed a deep breath, because it was three fucking minutes until it would all be over. Seungyoun continued navigating himself through the unfamiliar, crowded streets of downtown, while occasionally glancing at his arm, watching the remaining seconds tick away.

He was brought back to reality when a _very_ big, muscular man bumped into him in the street, knocking him off balance. “Hey! Watch it, man!” Seungyoun yelled into the crowd agitatedly as the random man didn’t utter a single apology and just ducked away into the rush hour sea of people.

Seungyoun felt the inner part of his wrist vibrate like a phone alarm going off and he knew that it meant that his timer had expired. That’s when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Seungyoun whipped his body around as he felt his mouth go absolutely dry. “Is it you?”, the question randomly spilled past his lips as he adoringly looked the stranger up and down. The stranger’s eyes grew wide, and gave him a very confused look.

“I- think you dropped this,” the brown-haired stranger said timidly, fully-knowing that Seungyoun was checking him out. The boy had a small smile creeping on his face, his hand extending Seungyoun’s wallet that must have fallen out of his back pocket in the previous collision.

The brunette stranger looked like an angel sent down directly from heaven; he had innocent, chestnut brown eyes, beautiful, silky hair that complimented his very cute and small face. His fair skin, was the next thing Seungyoun noticed – absolutely flawless, just like porcelain glass. He had a sharp, pointed nose and rosy-tinted lips which curved into a smile, that Seungyoun felt like he could stare at forever.

“Uh… Mister? This is your wallet, right?” the stranger’s voice brought him out of his daydream as he waved Seungyoun’s wallet in front of his face.

 _‘Ahh! His voice! It’s so soothing to hear,’._ Seungyoun wanted this man to read to him every night before going to sleep. He could see the beautiful stranger continue to wave his wallet at his face, but Seungyoun couldn’t respond, his throat suddenly felt very dry and he felt like he was floating around in Dreamland. He could only manage a nod to respond to the boy’s question.

It would be an understatement to say that Seungyoun was ecstatic. But… Seungyoun was ecstatic. There were no other words that could describe how he was feeling at the time. He had imagined the greasy delivery boy for god’s sake to be his mate, and it turned out to be this gorgeous heaven-sent being.

Then, Seungyoun noticed the boy’s face fall as the smile on his lips vanished. The boy had his eyes glued to Seungyoun’s expired time-mark that read 00:00:00. “You better take this quick, Mister. Someone very lucky is waiting for you” the man said, biting his lips, as he grabbed Seungyoun’s wrist and placed the dropped wallet in the palm of his hands. 

Seungyoun looked immediately down the stranger’s arm where there was a time-mark present. His eyes went wide as he read the numbers on the stranger’s arm. He took the boy’s left hand and pulled it gently towards his direction. He slowly realised that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.

04:00:35.

Their time-marks didn’t match.

“Good luck with your soulmate” the stranger whispered, with a sad smile as he pulled his hand away from Seungyoun’s grip. He turned around to walk away from Seungyoun, disappearing from Seungyoun’s line of sight. And Seungyoun just stood there, feeling confused in the middle of the street. His time-mark was still vibrating and blinking zeroes, as though mocking him. He turned his head – looking left, right, left, right. There had to be someone looking for him too. His soulmate _had_ to be searching around for him, Seungyoun was _so_ sure of it.

But, alas, nobody came up to him.

And he was still alone.

He was still… soulmate-less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guys really think it would be that easy for our Mr. Cho?
> 
> I hope this is still interesting and that you want to find out what happens next! Please leave me any comments and feedback. Or click the Kudos button if you're enjoying the story so far :) Thank you all for taking some time to read this update~

**Author's Note:**

> Hellooooo! Thank you so much for taking some time to read my work.
> 
> This is my actually my first time publishing any of my work, I usually only write for myself hehe. But, I wanted to give this a try. So please, feel free to give me any feedback and spam the comments section. Also, let me know if you like it and if I should even continue with the next chapter :) 
> 
> Have a great day, you!


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